The present invention relates to a method and a system for detecting one or several objects in an angular zone, and its various applications.
One particular field of application of the invention relates to anti-collision devices, notably for automobiles. In this field, it is required to carry out detailed analysis of a zone situated in front of a vehicle. The purpose of such analysis is to immediately warn the driver of the vehicle when there is a danger of collision. Decisions to issue an alert by anti-collision devices are a function of various criteria which themselves depend on the position and relative speed of the other vehicles presenting the risk, of the radar signature, etc.
The aim of the present invention is to refine the spatial analysis of the zone situated ahead of a vehicle so as to be able, firstly, to situate detected vehicles with respect to the road they are travelling on and, secondly, to distinguish two vehicles that are close to each other.
In order to achieve this, the analysing radar needs to have extremely stringent characteristics as regards its resolving power and angular accuracy.
The solutions that are usually proposed consist in using narrow-beam radar and sweeping the zone to be analysed. Such sweeping, or scanning, is generally mechanical which has the disadvantage of being difficult to install on production-line vehicles, and above all of being insufficiently reliable as regards safety requirements.
Moreover, electronic scanning cannot be adapted to this type of radar, as it is not currently known how to provide technologically an electronic scanning antenna operating with millimetric waves. The cost of producing it would moreover be prohibitive in view of the market being aimed at.